Brands Hatch, 28th May 2006
Bernard was in Pau enjoying the sun and running a couple of cars on this lovely street circuit where entries are £700 (and this obviously does not include all the other costs – ferries etc). Having enjoyed the Historic GP at Monaco I was having illusions until the expense got in the way.
The car was ready to go and qualifying was notable for 2 things. Brands is a short lap (54 seconds in my case) and with 28 cars it gets a little full. The speed variations made for some interesting manoeuvres and difficulty in getting a clear lap. This did not seem to matter too much as the car was understeering everywhere. I am sure I have not managed to get it to understeer at Paddock before, but it was on this occasion along with every other corner. Surtees was particularly frightening and whilst I think you should be flat into this I was feathering the throttle every time. To be honest I was shocked to find I was as high as 7th on the grid. I thought just outside the top 10 would have been fair.
At weighing my car was too close to the weight limit to be comfortable and I borrowed some lead from the Walton team. Also the starter motor was defunct so a push start was necessary.
The Race
Previously my starts had been working well with slightly less revs but on this occasion slightly became even slighter and after a millisecond of wheelspin the car bogged down and David Gathercole was able to get past me and Jon Davis, who was alongside me, was able to pull onto the inside preventing any progress for me. The next 12 or so laps were very exciting involving much dicing with these two and David Penlington who was behind me. I did get past Jon and managed to keep David behind as well.
Towards the end I found I was catching Andy Powell, who sounded as though he had a misfire. David had got past him and I was increasingly optimistic and as we came down towards Graham Hill bend the backmarkers seemed to provide an opportunity. There seemed to be 2 or 3 of them so I dived in between them but a red car (at this point I thought it was Michael Valentine) was on the outside of the bend and my rear hit his front sending me spinning towards the barriers. I was so convinced that barriers and car would meet that when this did not happen I did not seem to mind so much that the rear corner had suffered yet again.
My race was over with one lap to go when lying 7th………….
The car was ready to go and qualifying was notable for 2 things. Brands is a short lap (54 seconds in my case) and with 28 cars it gets a little full. The speed variations made for some interesting manoeuvres and difficulty in getting a clear lap. This did not seem to matter too much as the car was understeering everywhere. I am sure I have not managed to get it to understeer at Paddock before, but it was on this occasion along with every other corner. Surtees was particularly frightening and whilst I think you should be flat into this I was feathering the throttle every time. To be honest I was shocked to find I was as high as 7th on the grid. I thought just outside the top 10 would have been fair.
At weighing my car was too close to the weight limit to be comfortable and I borrowed some lead from the Walton team. Also the starter motor was defunct so a push start was necessary.
The Race
Previously my starts had been working well with slightly less revs but on this occasion slightly became even slighter and after a millisecond of wheelspin the car bogged down and David Gathercole was able to get past me and Jon Davis, who was alongside me, was able to pull onto the inside preventing any progress for me. The next 12 or so laps were very exciting involving much dicing with these two and David Penlington who was behind me. I did get past Jon and managed to keep David behind as well.
Towards the end I found I was catching Andy Powell, who sounded as though he had a misfire. David had got past him and I was increasingly optimistic and as we came down towards Graham Hill bend the backmarkers seemed to provide an opportunity. There seemed to be 2 or 3 of them so I dived in between them but a red car (at this point I thought it was Michael Valentine) was on the outside of the bend and my rear hit his front sending me spinning towards the barriers. I was so convinced that barriers and car would meet that when this did not happen I did not seem to mind so much that the rear corner had suffered yet again.
My race was over with one lap to go when lying 7th………….
posted by Anthony at 9:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home